


Define Your Meaning of War (To Me It's Something That We Do When We're Bored)

by Wickedtruth



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Gen, M/M, POV Female Character, POV Third Person, Prompt Fic, hints of slash/pre-slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-17
Updated: 2011-03-17
Packaged: 2017-10-17 01:20:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/171439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wickedtruth/pseuds/Wickedtruth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are many words that Rachel could use to describe her ex-husband. Slightly more than half of them are insults.  She rather suspects that in some ways, life might have been a lot easier if she couldn't list his good qualities as easily as she could list his bad.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Define Your Meaning of War (To Me It's Something That We Do When We're Bored)

**Author's Note:**

> Second prompt from my Hawaii Five-0 [Prompt Table](http://sangembrasse.livejournal.com/48768.html).

There are many words that Rachel could use to describe her ex-husband. Slightly more than half of them are insults.

He can be infuriating, stubborn, deliberately obtuse and argumentative. He's also generous, loyal, and a devoted father. She rather suspects that in some ways, life might have been a lot easier if she couldn't list his good qualities as easily as she could list his bad.

Because as much as she loves Stan, she can't erase the years she spent married to Danny, or the fact that they have a beautiful, clever daughter together. And while there are things about their marriage and life together she would change if she could, she wouldn't change having Grace for the world.

She knows that all she has to do is call Danny and he'll be there, offering support and help. He proved that beyond doubt when she and Grace were car-jacked. And she _knows_ that Danny was lying when he said that it had all been a misunderstanding. He'll deny it to his dying day, no doubt, but she knows him. For a cop, he's always been a lousy liar.

Stan is reliable, dependable. With him, she doesn't have to worry about a knock on the door in the middle of the night. She doesn't have to fret every time he's late home and doesn't call. He might not have Danny's charisma, but he's not exactly a bore. Her and Grace's life with Stan is stable and secure.

Sometimes she misses the fire and passion of her relationship with Danny. He's all exaggeration and invective, but he can be funny when he chooses. But in the end, their marriage ended not because Danny talked too much, but because he didn't talk about the things that mattered. He might appear to wear his heart on his sleeve, but you only get to see what he wants you to see. He's actually very good at avoiding awkward conversations. In fact, their divorce was amicable only in the sense that they communicated by text, e-mail and voice mail.

The already tenuous relationship was strained to breaking point when she brought Grace to Hawaii. Despite what Danny thought, she didn't do it through any sense of malice, but out of a desire to build the best life for her daughter that she could. She wasn't surprised when Danny followed them, he'd always been a better father than husband, in many ways.

He'd hated the place at first, and he'd made that displeasure known loudly and frequently and for the first few months, he and Rachel couldn't speak to each other without ending up in an often vicious argument. But he's slowly come around to living here.

Rachel's not blind and she's definitely not stupid. She knows that the reason for her ex-husband's slow thawing has little to do with the idyllic setting and more to do with his new team. She's only met his boss, Steve, but it was still obvious how much he respected and liked Danny and how much that was reciprocated. Over the last few months, she's seen every indication that the friendship has grown, partly because at least half the time Grace comes home from her weekends with Danny and talks about Steve having been there.

She's pleased that Danny has friends. For Grace's sake, she's happy that she and Danny have managed to learn to be mostly friendly to each other.

So when she sees him, and he's happy and tanned and looks more relaxed than he's been in years, she can't help but remember the good times, the days when things were more right than wrong between them. There's still chemistry there, and it would be so easy, sometimes, to look back and forget the ways that they hurt each other and themselves.

But then Danny's brother turns up and Steve joins them for lunch and dinner and she sees the way he and Danny are together, the way Danny laughs with him, like a friend, not a colleague. She sees the way that Danny touches him. It shouldn't be a surprise, Danny has always been tactile. It's not until some time later that she realises that it wasn't the touching that surprised her, it wasn't even the familiarity of it, it was the way Steve accepted it, leant into it, even, as if it was normal and expected.

And she's sure then that no matter how strong the spark is between her and Danny still is, he's finally moved on. And if she's just a little disappointed by that, she's going to keep it to herself.


End file.
